In reflecting on how to title this post, a few of the options I considered were "A Farewell to Blogs", "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish", and "Decline and Fall of Jennifer’s Blog", and although I decided against using them, the decision to write this post remains: I have decided to stop blogging. There are numerous factors behind this decision, but the fact that I’ve stopped enjoying blogging means that it is time to stop.

Thank you to those of you who have read an interacted with my posts. I have very much enjoyed hearing your feedback.

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Thanks to Thomas Nelson’s program Book Sneeze, I had the opportunity to get a copy of journalist Jennifer Grant’s book Love You More: The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter in exchange for a review. Although I expected to enjoy this book, I didn’t. It really didn’t "click" with me, and I found it difficult to finish.

The writing style was clear but unremarkable. While I enjoyed reading about her adoption, the narrative felt wandering and unconnected. I’m still not sure why Grant told us about "Stock Market Steve" (pages 88-89) from her book club or other topics that seemed to be, at most, tangentially connected to the story of adopting Mia.

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September is World Alzheimer’s Month, and Wednesday is Alzheimer’s Action Day. Like many people, I have been touched by the disease, not in my own body, but in relationships. Both of my husband’s grandfathers live with Alzheimer’s, and I see its impact not only in my relationships with these men (or the complete lack of relationship because I’ve never met my mother-in-law’s father who has lived with Alzheimer’s longer than I’ve known Michael) but also in the lives of my husband and in-laws.

I had hoped to share a book related to Alzheimer’s with you, but the books I’ve recently picked up from the library didn’t make the cut; however, I would like to remind you of two books I’ve previously reviewed. Speaking Our Minds was a remarkable book that gave readers the opportunity to hear from individuals living with Alzheimer’s. Aging with Grace offered a look at an early long-term study of Alzheimer’s.

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Previously released as Stop Dating the Church, Joshua Harris’s Why Church Matters encourages readers to love and commit to a local church.

Although this short, easy-to-read book primarily prods casual attenders to commit to a local church, even members who are already with a church for the long-haul can benefit from the encouragement to continue making the local church a priority.

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For a little over a week, Michael and I have been reading N. D. Wilson’s Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl aloud together. We’ve talked about what books we might want to read to our children someday, if the Lord should choose to bless us with children, but children aren’t srictly necessary for the joys of reading aloud as a family. Our family of two has enjoyed the experience of reading aloud together, and I’ve been contemplating a bit about why we enjoy it.

It requires reading aloud. I am a big fan of reading in a way that lets me hear the words instead of just seeing them. When I’m home alone, I do occasionally read aloud to myself, but frequently I stop using my mouth and just vocalize the words in my mind. When reading with Michael, there is motivation to actually pronouncing the words. Wilson’s words appeal to the ear more than most authors, so the benefits of hearing them are higher than average, but I think reading aloud gives something to most good books.

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A couple years ago, I saw a copy of John Stott’s Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century on the shelf of our favorite thrift store. John Stott was a common name in the blogosphere, but I did not know much about him. The book came home with me that day.

Now, I have a vague goal (though without much hope) of not moving books that I haven’t read when we move in a few years (with exceptions for reference books and some books that interest Michael but not me). So, when John Stott passed away last week, it seemed an appropriate time to decide whether the reading of Between Two Worlds would happen now or never.

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When pondering the famous wives of church history, I have often thought that I would rather be a wife like Katie Luther or Sarah Edwards than John Wesley’s Mary, but from time to time I need a practical reminder of how to be that kind of wife. Cindi McMenamin’s book When a Woman Inspires Her Husband caught my eye, encouraging wives, like me, to live in a way that honors God and affirms their husbands.

While McMenamin doesn’t draw from the lives of historical figures, she looks beyond her own experience, quoting other authors, such as Gary Thomas and Elyse Fitzpatrick, as well as couples she interviewed.

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This month, I thought I’d try a bit of a theme for picking four of the books on my "hope to read" list to put on the Nightstand posts. So over the next month I hope to read "Something..."

• "Old": Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne by Andrew Bonar: M’Cheyne is a name that kept popping up a few years ago and I’ve read or heard several short biographies, but this month I hope to read this more substantial piece.
• "New": Love You More by Jennifer Grant: This adoption story is a book I’ll be reviewing for Book Sneeze sometime this month.
• "Borrowed": When the Red Sox Ruled: Baseball’s First Dynasty 1912-1918 by Thomas Whalen: I saw this on the library’s list of new items, and a summer when the season is going so well is a good time to read about my favorite team.
• "Fiction" (ok so the book is also "Blue" but I want to make sure I have some fiction on my list): Leaving Van Gogh by Carol Wallace: Another library book that I saw reviewed.

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Earlier this month, I spent a week at my parents house. While there, I picked up Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Sequence, a series of "children’s" fantasy my father read to us when we were young, which I have enjoyed many times since. The series is incredibly well written and includes a Newbery Medal Winner (The Grey King) as well as a Newbery Honor Book (The Dark is Rising).

I could go on with what I love about the series, but this post isn’t meant to be a review. This post is meant to raise the question of how Christians should respond when fiction and faith clash. Given that I am about to quote the final chapter of the final book, this post may have what could be construed as spoilers.

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In Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History, Diana Lynn Severance weaves together accounts of influential women in the church through the ages. Densely packed with information, this book tells of familiar women such as Katie Luther and Susana Wesley and serves as an introduction to less familiar characters such as Hrotsvit, Elizabeth of Hungary, and Anne Askew.

Severance’s chronological survey felt a bit textbookish at first, but as it moved along in history I felt the stories became more engaging, possibly because of better sources to draw from, especially more abundant writing by the women themselves.

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