{"id":23946,"date":"2022-12-29T00:35:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T06:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=23946"},"modified":"2022-12-30T00:21:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T06:21:18","slug":"2022-through-the-lens-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2022\/12\/2022-through-the-lens-of-books\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 Through the Lens of Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This list is a personal thing for me to share, as these books were with me through all that I experienced this year. Whether I liked a book or not, I gained something from each. I will forever associate certain books with the landmarks of my year, big and small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The Writing Life<\/em>&nbsp;by Annie Dillard (beautiful writing)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>On Moving<\/em>&nbsp;by Louise DeSalvo (I didn\u2019t enjoy most of this book, but the writing about the author saying goodbye to her house at the end was just right.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Tattoos on the Heart<\/em>&nbsp;by Greg Boyle (I loved this. \u201cPure religion\u201d in action.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Where the Crawdads Sing<\/em>&nbsp;by Delia Owens (Hated the ending.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>How to Meditate<\/em>&nbsp;by Pema Ch\u00f6dr\u00f6n (I am glad I read it, but I have no idea what I was reading a lot of the time.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Beloved<\/em>&nbsp;by Toni Morrison<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Where\u2019d You Go, Bernadette<\/em>&nbsp;by Maria Semple (Meh.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Saints, volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand<\/em>&nbsp;(The vast scope of this book is staggering, and it took me a long time to read it. When I wasn\u2019t grieving over the events, I was energized by the personal accounts of miracles, dreams, and visions. There is a lot in here, and I kept notes on the people, as I learned I had to do with the first volume of&nbsp;<em>Saints<\/em>.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Nature of Fragile Things<\/em>&nbsp;by Susan Meissner (It was a page-turner.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>When Crickets Cry<\/em>&nbsp;by Charles Martin (Good.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters<\/em> by Abigail Shrier<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Secret Garden<\/em>&nbsp;by Frances Hodgson Burnett (So much better to read as an adult.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Cranford<\/em>&nbsp;by Elizabeth Gaskell (I love this author, and this was my second reading of this book.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Brothers Karamazov<\/em>&nbsp;by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (So much to say about themes, but the piece I needed was its commentary about how a true Christian helps others. I collected many quotes to live by.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>A Lion and a Lamb<\/em>&nbsp;by Rand H. Packer (This was inspiring. This couple served a twenty-four year mission at the Smith farm in Palmyra, NY to establish good will with the community, 1915-1939. This couple is also depicted in the film,&nbsp;<em>The Fighting Preacher<\/em>.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>On Juneteenth<\/em>&nbsp;by Annette Gordon-Reed (I liked this.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Whistling Past the Graveyard<\/em>&nbsp;by Susan Crandall (I did not like the narrator and was dissatisfied with the book, but could not stop reading.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>William Tyndale, a Biography<\/em>&nbsp;by David Daniell (This was a scholarly, academic, detailed analysis of Tyndale\u2019s translation work on the Bible and his impact on religion and the English language. Five hundred years later, we remain familiar with his words, whether we are religious or not. This book was an accomplishment for me to finish.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Even This<\/em>&nbsp;by Emily Belle Freeman (I read this because I like her insights into Bible stories and rethinking our relationship with God. This was a nice book.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Death of Ivan Ilych<\/em>&nbsp;by Leo Tolstoy (Good.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Crossings<\/em>&nbsp;by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye (This is a collection of essays and letters about living as a Latter-day Saint woman, scholar, cancer patient, and mother. Good.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>My War<\/em>&nbsp;by Andy Rooney (Good.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Sense and Sensibility<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ<\/em>&nbsp;\u2665\ufe0f<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Worst Hard Time<\/em>&nbsp;by Timothy Egan (There is no happy ending here, just a cautionary tale about environmental destruction and greed that led to Dust Bowl conditions in the 1930s. The description of the great dust storm on Black Sunday was really well written.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Persuasion<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen (A familiar friend)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>A Useful Woman<\/em>&nbsp;by Darcie Wilde (fluff)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Pachinko<\/em>&nbsp;by Min Jin Lee (Powerful story)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Everybody, Always<\/em>&nbsp;by Bob Goff (It read like too much self-promotion to me.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Pride and Prejudice<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen (I enjoyed this more than ever this time.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Northanger Abbey<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Bomb&nbsp;<\/em>by Steve Sheinkin (fascinating)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Old Testament<\/em> \u2764\ufe0f<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Mansfield Park<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Four Agreements<\/em>&nbsp;by N Miguel Ruiz (Okay)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Emma<\/em>&nbsp;by Jane Austen&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Gift of the Magi<\/em>&nbsp;by O Henry (a favorite)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This list is a personal thing for me to share, as these books were with me through all that I experienced this year. Whether I liked a book or not, I gained something from each. I will forever associate certain books with the landmarks of my year, big and small.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-life-according-to-angela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23946"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23995,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946\/revisions\/23995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}